The complete app for equine yard management
The complete app for equine yard management
Yard Snapshot:
We run a Full and Part Livery yard. We also hold regular clinics and host external shows for local riding clubs. We have owned the yard for nearly 3 years and have around 40 horses when full!
What inspired you to start or take over the business?
We were looking for an equestrian property for our own private use and couldn’t find anywhere so ended up buying a large equestrian centre and felt that it would be sinful to not use the facilities to support other equestrians especially with the number of local yards closing!
What do you love most about running a yard?
For us, everything is about horse welfare. We are a yard that very much believes that no horse stands in a field wishing it was competing – as long as they are loved and well looked after (their needs met!) then that is a happy horse! We want to support owners and horses from all disciplines and walks of life. If you are a happy hacker or an event rider I wanted our yard to be a supportive and fun place for all!
Are there any particular values or principles you try to run your yard by? We’d love to hear what matters to you.
Horse welfare comes above and beyond at our yard. The entire team believe and support this ethos too. Horses should be happy and content in their environment. If they aren’t settled in a certain field or stable then we work around this to ensure they are settled. We don’t have the attitude of “tough, that’s your allocated field/stable and if it doesn’t suit we aren’t the yard for you”. If we aren’t here for the horses what are we here for?
What was going on at your yard that made you feel like LIVERYLive could help?
We joined in May 2023, because I was finding trawling through a paper diary and requests on WhatsApp was tiring and a poor use of my time! I was also convinced that services and extras were being missed at a huge cost to the yard.
What’s the app feature you use the most?
Definitely the To Do function for the team. They check the requests for products and services before we open up the yard for the day. The fact that we can add our own products and services has been invaluable, we have created an ad hoc request for anything that isn’t chargeable but might get lost as a request on a WhatsApp chat. Things such as, please can you let me know if he has eaten all of his hay etc.
I’m also a huge fan of the records section, we hold a biannual weigh clinic with the BHS and holding the horses weights on the system has helped when administering wormers or even when the vet needs to administer emergency drugs.
How has the invoicing system helped with your finances?
The invoicing for services and extras has been the biggest game changer for me personally! The time saved is huge – previously I was having to list everything out on an invoice and it took days, it’s instant now! Owners can keep track of their bills so nothing is a surprise at the end of the month. It also has less room for error and isn’t as easy to miss items off! I don’t let bills go much past a few days overdue but knowing I can resend invoices as a reminder has been great!
How have horse owners responded to the changes with LIVERYLive?
Everyone loves LL and I’ve even had people move to the yard and part of what has convinced them is our use of LL! It’s very transparent and they know that their requests haven’t been missed because they are approved and then marked as completed!
Our team really love the app too – it’s made everything clearer with less room for confusion. They can allocate chores between themselves and from the palm of their hand! We don’t play the blame game but if something has gone on incorrectly it’s good to also be able to see who approved and then completed the task so we can double check what happened.
What’s one feature you didn’t expect to rely on but now love?
The ability to be able to add my own services and products – it’s just so great as we are always adding ad hoc requests that save people having to type out lengthy requests (We have a meds request, a Box Rest request, a Leave In request) all items that don’t have a cost associated with them but save time for the owners so make it more user friendly! We also love that we can have Staff services and the ability to hide those from the clients!
What’s the biggest benefit LIVERYLive has brought to your yard?
If I had to pick one thing it’s the time it’s saved! Not just me but for my clients too! Closely followed by the reduction in stress – again for me because I don’t get late night messages and calls from panicked owners about forgetting to write things in a diary and for them because if they forget they can instantly request something and know it’s been actioned!
I cannot imagine running a yard without LIVERYLive now – until you’ve used it you cannot imagine how much time and stress it saves! This is one of the rare things that really isn’t too good to be true! Like Ronseal – it does exactly what it says it does!
